This Open Access book presents a new theoretical framework for understanding human mental activity, moving beyond the mechanistic and information-processing approaches of contemporary cognition and AI models. Drawing on the lineage of Lev Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology and the Continental tradition, the work develops a theory of sense based on the subjective grasp of internal symbolic structures. It shows how reflexive consciousness and symbolic tools shape the development of thought, creativity, and human action. By recentering the subject, the book offers a rigorous foundation for rethinking psychology, knowledge, and education, providing scholars and students with the pioneering tools of a true science of consciousness.

Nathalie Bulle is a sociologist and Research Director at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), affiliated with the Groupe d’Étude des Méthodes de l’Analyse Sociologique de la Sorbonne (GEMASS) in Paris. With an initial background in mathematics and physics, as well as training in philosophy and sociology, she has conducted research at the intersection of sociology, developmental psychology, philosophy of mind, and epistemology. Her current work focuses on the fundamental analysis of human thought, its symbolic forms, and the conditions of knowledge.